Princess
by insert cliche
Summary: One of the biggest reasons why Uchiha Sasuke hates Hyuuga Neji is also the most unknown. NejiTen; onesided SasuTen


**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form. All characters and settings used belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

**Summary**: One of the biggest reasons why Uchiha Sasuke hates Hyuuga Neji is also the most unknown.

**Pairings**: NejiTen, one-sided SasuTen, later SasuSaku, NaruHina, and KonoHana

**AN**: I'm back! (sorta) Anyways, here's some more NejiTen (it feels like I haven't written them in forever...) for everyone! This is mostly a "give Tenten a background story" piece, but I liked writing it anyways. (It's so sad how she gets almost no screentime.) And because I felt like having two angsty boys fight over the girl, I made them do just that.

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**Princess**

by insert cliche

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Everyone knows that Tenten wasn't originally from Konoha, but nobody bothers to learn her story.

Her first home was a small civilian village on the border between two smaller countries. Although the town itself was so small that the mapmakers didn't bother to put it on their maps, it was famed for the art it produced. It was the home to some of the best painters and calligraphers of the time, and daimyos paid mountains of gold to get their hands on those paintings.

It had been ravaged during a war between the two countries as an act of revenge. Houses had been burned down, families had been killed, and anything that remained was left to the vultures and the thieves. All of the survivors had fled, scattered like dandelion seeds on the wind.

Tenten had been the daughter of the village leader, and brought up as a nobleman's daughter. She was taught fine arts from the age of four, and could recite poetry from memory for hours. She had been raised just to be married off to the highest bidder.

But with the destruction of her home came the end of her short life as a lady-in-training. The war had arrived when she was six, and the only reason she had survived was because there had been some business dealings between her father and Konoha. Her father's last wish was that she live, and the Uchihas on the mission decided that it would be a good thing if there was another girl who was suitable for marriage to some of the clan boys.

So they brought her back and tried to keep her.

* * *

Upon her arrival in Konoha, Tenten's early memories had been erased. She kept her all of her lady skills, such as the tea ceremony and her beloved calligraphy, but Yamanaka Inochi suppressed all of Tenten's thoughts on her family and home. She had no home anymore.

She was placed in the Konoha orphanage like any other war refugee, but was given a small apartment after she had proven herself capable of taking care of herself. After coming to Konoha and seeing all of the shinobi, it had become her dream to be one, too. And it would be rather contradictory if a future kunoichi couldn't even live without help.

Nobody knew her real name, so Sarutobi Asuma, the gatekeeper at the time of her arrival, took it upon himself to name the little girl. She had been brought in on the tenth day of the tenth month, and was called Tenten to reflect that.

Later, when Yuuhi Kurenai heard about her best friend's "act of kindness," she smacked him on the head and called him an idiot.

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Sarutobi knew of how the Uchiha clan were planning to stake out a claim on one of the war orphans, and decided to counteract that before they got too full of themselves.

He brought Tenten's case up during one of the clan head meetings, and asked if anyone wanted to adopt. After all, she was both a cultured girl and a kunoichi-in-training. For any clan, the match would be from the best of both worlds. A woman who could serve as a both a matriarch and protector would be hard to come by in later years.

The problem was, Uchiha Fugaku had been present at that meeting, and none of the heads wanted to risk his wrath if they crossed him. So they stayed silent, and waited for the storm to pass.

Also, some people just didn't want to adopt. Adding another girl to Yamanaka Inochi's household would equal mass destruction. Nara Shikaku found kids troublesome. It was hard to integrate outsiders into the Aburame, Inuzuka, and Akimichi clans.

Then Hyuuga Hiashi spoke. "We Hyuugas could take her under our wing, if Hokage-sama so wished." He had noticed the girl on one of his trips into the village center, and had approved of her manners. And there was a little genius by the name of Hyuuga Neji who needed a companion.

Fugaku glared. "And what makes you think that your clan would be the best match? Have you not seen how passionate and loud she can be? Would she really be accepted into your family?"

"And what makes the Uchiha clan any better? From what I remember, the Uchihas have a habit of hiding away all of their women," Hiashi said. He remembered the day when Fugaku's engagement to his cousin had been announced. Mikoto had burst into tears.

Fugaku flushed angrily. "And what of the Byakugan? She has no bloodline ability to speak of!"

Hiashi smirked. "We Hyuugas do not inbreed quite as often as the Uchihas do. I myself did not have a Hyuuga bride."

By this point, Fugaku was ready to fight Hiashi. Fight, as in an all-out, weapons included, bloody _fight_. Hiashi wouldn't have minded pummeling the Uchiha, either.

Then Sarutobi coughed dryly. "Gentlemen, please calm yourselves. As Tenten's case is simply causing antagonism in our meeting, we shall move on from the matter."

Tenten had no idea that anything had happened.

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But, like all clichéd stories, two boys fell for one girl.

Hyuuga Neji liked her for four reasons. One, she was not a fangirl. That made her the best female around. Two, she could actually fight, unlike the previously mentioned fangirls. Three, she was almost top of the class, second only to himself. And four, she was a the most decent person to be around. Even the boys.

Uchiha Sasuke liked her for just one reason: she was pretty.

To the onlookers, it sort of made sense how Neji got the girl in the end.

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Tenten's first encounters with both boys were..._interesting_, to say the least.

Sasuke, after watching Tenten for months by spying through the Academy fences - he was a year younger, after all - ran up to her one day after school, and handed her a tomato. Then he blushed and sprinted back to his smirking older brother.

Tenten was more than confused. Why was a younger boy giving her a _vegetable_?

The poor tomato was used as target practice.

Neji, on the other hand, got hit by one of Tenten's shuriken when he wasn't paying attention. He stared at her with an activated Byakugan for over ten minutes, and scared the heck out of the poor girl as he was doing it. The next day, he gave her the gift of a fuuma shuriken, and told her that she was decent.

That was the moment when Tenten decided to become a weapons specialist.

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Things escalated. By the time she had been placed on a team, gift after gift after gifts after gifts started appearing at Tenten's doorstep, and the poor girl didn't know what to think. They were all wrapped in navy blue paper, and contained makeup and girly things that Tenten didn't want. When she asked Neji about the strange phenomenon, he smirked and told her to ignore them. So she did just that. Tossed the fancy powders and brushes into the wastebasket, threw the bottles of perfume into the river.

It felt quite nice to destroy pretty things, she thought. Liberating.

Once, when she wondered about her gifts, she thought that perhaps a potential suitor wanted her to become a lady. Then she scoffed at the mere idea of somebody wanting her, and went to bed.

She never knew how right she was

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When Sasuke found out about how Neji was encouraging Tenten to destroy his gifts, he stormed up to the Hyuuga in a fit of temper and demanded a spar. Both boys knew the reasons, and both were prepared to fight for their honor and the girl's attention.

The spar lasted for hours, and by the end, both boys were chakra-depleted, bloody, and exhausted. Neji smirked.

"I believe I won, Uchiha."

Sasuke scoffed. "Yeah, right. If I hadn't stopped my fireballs, you would have run out of chakra with that pathetic defense of yours."

Neji's eyes hardended. "If you factor in outside circumstances, then I won. You prepared exclusively for this match, while I was forced to fight you after training all day with Tenten." The words _with_ and _Tenten_ were emphasized and drawn out, and Sasuke glared at the older boy.

"So is spinning around all you can do?" he goaded, trying to get a larger reaction from Neji. "Huh, looks like the Hyuuga jutsus aren't that great after all."

"And your Uchiha fireballs are any better? Even genin could do those." Neji's voice was infuriatingly calm.

Sasuke moved to speak again, but was cut off by a gasp.

"Neji? What were you _doing_?"

It was Tenten.

The two boys stiffened, and watched as Tenten ran over to the edge of the training field where they were trying to rest and recuperate. She stared at them, then at the craters in the ground and the shuriken in the trees, and stared at them again. They heard the gears in her head turning, and saw the pieces click together in her mind.

Both of them knew that the boy she headed to first was the one more important to her. So Sasuke tried to brush himself off a little and look slightly presentable, while Neji just turned his "angsty boy charm" up higher.

"Neji, you idiot! What were you doing, sparring with Uchiha right after fighting me? Even _Lee_ knows better!" Her voice was increasing in both pitch and pace, and she started to walk towards her teammate. "I _told_ you to go home and rest! Don't you ever learn?"

Once she reached Neji, Tenten summoned a basic medical kit from one of her scrolls. Then she kneeled down next to him and started tending to the many cuts and bruises on his arm.

Sasuke was completely and wholeheartedly ignored.

And all he could do was lick his wounds in defeat and glare at the smirking Hyuuga's back.

* * *

Years passed. The Fourth Shinobi World War had come and gone, Naruto had been named the next Hokage, and Sasuke had come back to stay. The Great Villages were at peace for the first time, and people, shinobi and civilians alike, could start dreaming again.

And during the ups and downs of years gone by, Tenten and Neji ended up together. Theirs had been a courtship where everyone knew what was going on, and fully expected it. They had been partners for years, teammates for even longer, and finally, they were lovers.

_And soon to be fiancées, _went the rumor mill._ Once Neji mans up enough to ask. _

Sasuke had gotten over his "childish crush" on Konoha's metal dragon, and was quite happy with his life. He had a famous medic girlfriend by the name of Sakura Haruno, had turned into a hero once the true reasons for his defection had come up, and had become the head of the Konoha Police Force, like his father before him.

But when there were discussions between the new Uchiha and Hyuuga clan heads - Hinata had happily married Naruto with her father's blessing, and Hanabi was dating Sarutobi Konohamaru - there was always some underlying animosity.

Why?

Because Sasuke never got over the fact that _Hyuuga Neji_ got the girl without even doing anything.

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_Hope you all liked it! And please review. Any and all reviews are highly appreciated!_


End file.
